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Re(1): Airfield Location IP: 1.129.107.13 Posted on 19/2/2018 at 05:28:00 PM by Rod
Hi Bernie……I think this may be a combination of a couple of things. There were a couple of emergency airfields near Richmond established in WW2, I believe Schofields was one but not what you are thinking of, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Station_Schofields). The first one I thought of was at Pitt Town, i.e. where Airstrip Road is at Pitt Town and is soon to, unfortunately, be engulfed by the Sydney urban sprawl, (http://www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com/sydney-pitt-town-airstrip.html). The Airstrip was abandoned after WW2 and later used as a motor racing circuit. What I think may be more pertinent is the Scheyville National Park, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheyville_National_Park), which was used, very successfully, as a Officer Training Unit for National Servicemen. The list of graduates makes an interesting read, e.g. Tim, the Hat, Fischer.
As for training “Aviation Cadets” please see an excerpt below re Scheyville………but I do not know if they did any flying in the Hawkesbury.
“Direct entry aviation cadets were also trained at Scheyville, in the same 6 month courses as the National Servicemen. There were three 12 month Officer Cadet School (OCS) Portsea courses at Scheyville in 1972 and 1973. The first six months of these courses was the same as that for National Servicemen and the latter six months concentrating on subjects more suited to careers with the Regular Army. The Officer Training Unit continued to function until 1973 (the last intake was October 1972 to March 1973), after the Australian Labor Party abolished further National Service in December 1972. However a small number of the Regular Army officer cadets were still training there until December 1973 before travelling to OCS Portsea to graduate”